Pantsir

The Pantsir (NATO reporting name SA-22 Greyhound) is Russia's primary short-range air-defence system, combining 57E6 surface-to-air missiles with TWIN 30 mm autocannons on a single tracked or wheeled platform. Designed to fill the gap between long-range S-300/S-400 batteries and man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADs), Pantsir units are deployed across Ukraine, Syria, and Libya, with concentrated batteries protecting the Kremlin complex and other critical infrastructure. Redeployed batteries around the capital region were credited with helping intercept a reported 660 Ukrainian drones in a single overnight barrage on 26 June 2026, among the heaviest drone nights of the war .

In the Ukraine conflict, Pantsir has produced mixed results. Ukrainian forces destroyed multiple Pantsir-S1 launchers among more than 20 Russian air-defence targets hit between 1 and 15 March 2026 , and a Storm Shadow strike on the Kremniy El microelectronics plant in Bryansk, one of Russia's largest suppliers of Pantsir guidance components, further pressured production . Russia also deployed Pantsir alongside S-300 and 101 other air-defence systems to ring Moscow's Victory Day parade route on 9 May 2026, after Ukraine's 347-drone overnight attack .

Exported to the UAE, Algeria, and other customers, Pantsir remains Russia's principal mid-tier air-defence export product. Its mixed record against small, slow drone swarms, alongside repeated losses to precision strikes, has become a reference case in the wider industry debate over whether gun-missile point-defence systems can economically survive saturation drone attacks, the same interceptor-cost problem now facing Western systems such as Patriot and Iron Dome.